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TOP STORIES
Michael R. White, the Navy
veteran imprisoned in Iran since July, was beaten after his arrest,
has no money to hire a lawyer and still does not know what charges -
if any - have been filed against him, his mother said Monday. Joanne
White also said that her son, a former cancer patient, had been taken
to a court at least twice and that his health was deteriorating. A
family spokesman, Jonathan Franks, said a GoFundMe page had been
started to raise funds for Mr. White's legal representation in Iran.
The Netherlands on Monday
recalled its ambassador to Iran for consultations after diplomats at
its embassy in Tehran were expelled, Foreign Minister Stef Blok
said. The move comes just two months after the Netherlands
accused Iran of being behind political killings in the Netherlands
that triggered new European Union sanctions against Tehran.
EU trade turnover declined
significantly in the second half of 2018 due to U.S. sanctions on
Iran.The United States withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran in
May last year and imposed financial and industrial sanctions on
Tehran in August, followed by sanctions on its oil exports and
banking sector in November.
UANI IN THE NEWS
The University of South Florida
(USF) and its Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies recently
sponsored a conference with a prominent think tank, the Atlantic
Council. It should be a cause for celebration that USF is continuing
to assert itself as a growing force in academia. But this was not an
ordinary event. Until days before the conference, the primary draw of
this gathering was a keynote speech from Iranian Foreign Minister
Javad Zarif - a senior insider of the world's leading state-sponsor
of terrorism worldwide. The decision to place Zarif on that perch was
bewildering. It would have been damaging, inappropriate and amoral.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The world's atomic watchdog said
it's ready to meet shortages of nuclear medicines in Iran created by
the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, as top diplomats gather to
salvage a 2015 deal with Tehran. The International Atomic Energy
Agency is "willing to help" meet Iran's nuclear therapy and
medicine needs, Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters Monday
in Vienna.
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran's patience is running thin since
other parties of the Nuclear Deal, despite Iran, are not adhering to
their commitments. In a Monday tweet, Zarif wrote, "Contrasting
the constant lies that Netanyahu, Trump & Associates tell about
Iran, the #IAEA once again-and for the umpteenth time-affirms our
standing by our word and adhering to the nuclear accord that the US
has illegally violated."
Iran's supreme leader cautioned
the country's government on Monday not to pin its hopes on Europe as
Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers founders under US pressure.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's website quoted him as saying the landmark
2015 nuclear deal "could not fix our economic problems."
Khamenei's comments came as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said
Iran is complying with the deal.
International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) director-general Yukiya Amano said at a press
conference in Vienna on Monday that he would not address allegations
that Iran has allegedly pursued a secret nuclear weapons program in
the past without fully owning up to its violations. Asked about past
military dimensions (PMDs) of Iran's nuclear program - which it may
have hidden from the IAEA - Amano said, "for the PMD issues, I
do not speak of it."
Though he was sharply criticized
by the media and many foreign policy analysts for a "failed"
summit in Hanoi, President Donald J. Trump was absolutely right to
walk away from talks that were going in the wrong direction. Given
Trump's penchant for publicity, it might have been easy - tempting,
even - for him to have accepted a far-from-perfect offer from the
Dear Leader of Pyongyang, held a joint press conference, and claimed
victory in hopes of winning the news cycle.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
A closed-door speech last year
by Iran's Supreme Leader voicing doubt about the Iranian government's
diplomatic overtures to Europe was released on Monday in a sign of
feuding over foreign policy that led to a short-lived resignation by
the foreign minister. The address by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in
mid-2018 appeared to forecast difficulties European countries would
have in honouring pledges to protect trade with Iran from new U.S.
sanctions after Washington abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal between
Tehran and world powers.
MISSILE PROGRAM
The U.S. has deployed a highly advanced missile defense
system in Israel for the first time, the American and Israeli
militaries announced Monday, reflecting their shared concerns about
Iran's development of powerful missiles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
hailed the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
system, or THAAD, as a testament to the strength of the two
countries' military ties, saying that it makes Israel "even
stronger in order to deal with near and distant threats from throughout
the Middle East."
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
"A third round of
nationwide teachers' strikes in Iran entered its third day March 5,
with teachers across the country holding sit-ins in their school
principals' offices to demand better pay, the right to form unions,
and the freeing of all jailed teachers' rights activists. The
three-day strike was organized by the Coordinating Council of
Teachers Syndicates in Iran (CCTSI), which reported that teachers at
more than 1,000 primary and secondary schools in 100 cities
participated."
Women's rights activists from
128 nations are launching a public campaign Tuesday for an
international treaty to end violence against women and girls, a
global scourge estimated by the United Nations to affect 35 percent
of females worldwide. The campaign led by the Seattle-based nonprofit
organization Every Woman Treaty aims to have the U.N. World Health
Organization adopt the treaty with the goal of getting all 193 U.N.
member states to ratify it.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
"Iranian and Turkish media have pushed conspiracy
theories about the US-led coalition and the defeat of Islamic State
in Syria. As the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - the main partner of
the coalition in the anti-ISIS battle - defeats ISIS in Syria, both
Ankara and Tehran appear to have a different narrative. Iran has
sought to highlight US "support" for ISIS in the past and
claimed that Iran played the main role in its defeat."
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's trip to Tehran last week and that
was a reason why he submitted his resignation, the Iranian
Students' News Agency (ISNA) has reported. In its report on Tuesday, ISNA
cited foreign ministry spokesperson Bahram Qassemi as the source of
the information.
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif was not informed about Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad's trip to Tehran last week and that was a reason why he
submitted his resignation, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA)
reported on Tuesday. The news agency cited foreign ministry
spokesman Bahram Qassemi as the source of the information in its
report.
The Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammed Javad Zarif last week announced his resignation on the
social media platform Instagram, although his decision was quickly
rejected by the regime's leadership. The announcement of Zarif's
resignation came hours after Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived on
an unannounced visit to Tehran, during which he met with President
Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian Parliament on March
3 voted to prevent members from being reelected for fourth
consecutive terms in a bid "to rejuvenate the parliament, to
make it agile and facilitate the rotation of political elites."
However, the ratification has yet to be approved by the Guardian
Council. If it receives final approval, the new legislation would
limit the tenure of members of parliament to three consecutive terms
and require them to wait four years before being eligible to run for
a fourth term.
After 10 years as head of one of
the most important, and repressive, institutions in the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani will step down as chief
of the judiciary and be replaced by Ebrahim Raisi. Larijani will join
other recent government semi-retirees as a member of the Expediency
Council, an institution designed to resolve differences between the
parliament and the Guardian Council. Raisi will take the helm at a
time when his history, concurrent posts and support from
Reformists are in question.
Iran's parliament Speaker Ali
Larijani dismissed Sunday the government's announcement that it would
be unable to carry out a decision that binds President Hasan
Rouhani's administration to raise employee salaries during the next
Iranian year, which starts on March 21. The IRIB agency reported
Sunday that deputies delivered a warning to the government after
Rouhani administration spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht announced
that it was unable to increase salaries in the new year.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran's foreign ministry insisted
Monday that Tehran's ties with Moscow are "strong" and
shrugged off reported Israeli-Russian coordination on a
withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria. "Iran's ties with Moscow
are strong and we are always in touch and consult with each
other," ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told reporters in
Tehran.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
United Arab Emirates Minister of
State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash slammed on Monday Iran for
its ongoing occupation of its Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa
islands. In a series of tweets, he said that the occupation is
indicative of its policy in the Arab Gulf region. "Tehran is
embarrassing itself at every international forum because its
occupation remains illegal, illegitimate and unrecognized," he
added, saying that the UAE is seeking a peaceful resolution of this
issue through dialogue.
Yemen's Houthi rebels are using Sanaa airport as a
military base and are storing ballistic missiles in the northern
provinces of Saada and Omran, the Arab coalition said on Monday. The
airport has been controlled by the rebels who have battled the internationally
recognised government for nearly four years after they overran the
capital, Sanaa, in 2014. "The coalition has targeted an air
defense system set up by the Houthi militia at Sanaa airport,"
Colonel Turki Al Maliki, spokesman for the Arab Coalition, said
during a weekly press conference.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
An ultraconservative Iranian
newspaper called Tuesday for the expulsion of French diplomats from
the country, accusing France of expelling an Iranian diplomat on the
basis of a "ludicrous accusation". The Kayhan daily
demanded that the Iranian Foreign Ministry reciprocate "the
insolent and vile behavior of France in accusing and expelling our
diplomat from its soil."
When the Iranian government
celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, few
celebrated outside regime rent-a-mobs in Tehran. After all, while the
late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini promised Iranians and diplomats
that he had no interest in personal power and only wanted an Islamic
democracy, he instead ushered in a dictatorship more brutal, corrupt,
and capricious than the shah's regime which he demonized. There's
also the Iranian support for terrorism.
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